Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-tnzcf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-14T21:39:42.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New Source of Dietary Data for Extinct Herbivores

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William A. Akersten,
Theresea M. Foppe and
George T. Jefferson
William A. Akersten
Affiliation:
Idaho Museum of Natural History, Idaho State University, Post Office Box 8096, Pocatello, Idaho 83209 USA
Theresea M. Foppe
Affiliation:
Composition Analysis Laboratory, Range Science Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 USA
George T. Jefferson
Affiliation:
Rancho La Brea Section, George C. Page Museum, 5801 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90036 USA
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The teeth of many large herbivores contain “pockets” (fossettes, fossettids, etc.) which entrap impacted samples of food (dental boluses) during mastication. These do not preserve well in most fossil deposits, but at Rancho La Brea, paleobotanical remains survive essentially intact and dental boluses from late Pleistocene forms are amenable to microhistological analysis. Of the identifiable bolus contents, those from Bison antiquus averaged 87% nonmonocotyledons; from Camelops hesternus, 90% nonmonocotyledons; and from Equus occidentalis (one specimen), 56% nonmonocotyledons. A control study on modern Bison bison shows that the boluses contain somewhat lower percentages of monocotyledons than do alimentary samples from the same individuals. However, this accounts for only a part of the very high percentage of nonmonocotyledons in the boluses of the extinct Bison. We conclude that the populations of B. antiquus and C. hesternus represented at Rancho La Brea probably fed little on grasses and that there is enough indirect evidence to suggest that the same may be true for other populations of these taxa. The Equus data are not sufficient to do more than question the usual assumption that Pleistocene horses were always obligate grass eaters.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , July 1988, pp. 92 - 97
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Akersten, W.A., Shaw, C.A., Jefferson, G.T., (1983). Rancho La Brea: Status and future. Paleobiology. 9, 211-217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armitage, P.L., (1975). The extraction and identification of opal phytoliths from the teeth of ungulates. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2, 187-197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bombin, M., Muehlenbachs, K., (1985). 13C12C ratios of Pleistocene mummified remains from Beringia. Quaternary Research. 23, 123-129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gauthier-Pilters, H., (1961). Observations sur l'écologie du dromadaire dans le Sahara nordoccidental. Mammalia. 25, 195-280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginnett, T.F., Douglas, C.L., (1982). Food habits of feral burros and desert bighorn sheep in Death Valley National Monument. Desert Bighorn Council. 81-86, Transactions 1982.Google Scholar
Glover, R., (1947). The wisent or European bison. Journal of Mammalogy. 28, 333-342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, R.M., (1976). Foods of free-roaming horses in southern New Mexico. Journal of Range Management. 29, 347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, R.M., (1978). Shasta ground sloth food habits, Rampart Cave, Arizona. Paleobiology. 4, 302-319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, R.M., Late Pleistocene plant fragments in the dungs of herbivores at Cowboy Cave. Jennings, J.D., (1980). Cowboy Cave. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 104. 179-189.Google Scholar
Harington, C.R., Quaternary marine and land mammals and their paleoenvironmental implications—some examples from northern North America. Genoways, H.H., Dawson, M.R., (1984). Contributions in Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology: A Volume in Memorial to John E. Guilday. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 8. 511-525.Google Scholar
Hoechek, J.R., Valdez, R., (1985). Evaluation of in vitro digestion for improving botanical estimates of mule deer fecal samples. Journal of Mammalogy. 66, 574-577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, M.K., Wofford, H., (1983). Digestion and fragmentation: Influence on herbivore diet analysis. Journal of Wildlife Management. 47, 877-879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurtén, B., Anderson, E., (1980). Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia Univ. Press, New York.Google Scholar
Marcus, L.F., Berger, R., The significance of radiocarbon dates for Rancho La Brea. Martin, P.S., Klein, R.G., (1984). Quaternary Extinctions, a Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona, Tucson, 159-183.Google Scholar
Martin, A.C., Zim, H.S., Nelson, A.L., (1951). American Wildlife and Plants. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Migongo, W.E., (1984). The Trophic Relations and Habitat Adaptability of Livestock in the Central Part of Rendille Land in Kenya. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Colorado State University, Fort Collins.Google Scholar
Mooser, O., Dalquest, W.W., (1975). Pleistocene mammals from Aquascalientes, central Mexico. Journal of Mammalogy. 56, 781-820.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, K.L., (1965). Status and habits of American buffalo (Bison bison) in the Henry Mountain area of Utah. Utah State Department of Fish and Game Publication. 65, 1-142.Google Scholar
Newman, D.M.R., (1979). The feeding habits of old and new world camels as related to their future role as productive ruminants. Camels. Provisional Report No. 6. International Foundation for Science, Stockholm, 171-200.Google Scholar
Seegmiller, R.F., Ohmart, R.D., (1981). Ecological relationships of feral burros and desert bighorn sheep. Wildlife Monographs. 78, 1-58.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Van Devender, T.R., Martin, P.S., Foppe, T., Long, A., (1980). Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastense Hoffstetter) at Shelter Cave, New Mexico: Environment, diet, and extinction. Quaternary Research. 14, 360-376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Vuren, D., (1984). Summer diets of bison and cattle in southern Utah. Journal of Range Management. 37, 260-261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, E.P., 3rd ed. (1975). Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, MD.Google Scholar
Warter, J.K., (1976). Late Pleistocene plant communities—evidence from the Rancho La Brea tar pits. California Native Plant Society. 2, 32-39.Google Scholar
Wasser, C.H., (1977). Bison-Induced Stress on Canyon-Bottom Ecosystems in Colorado National Monument. National Parks Service Report, Contract No. PX 120060617.Google Scholar
Williams, V., (1963). Rumen function in the camel. Nature. 197, 1221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar